VMware Fusion 3 or Parallels Desktop 5.0 for Mac

[aviator0402]

which is better and why? VMware Fusion 3 or Parallels Desktop 5.0 for Mac
im planing on getting one or the other for a mac book pro. thanks for the help.

 

[mdfuller]

I think both are great. If you search around you will find this same question asked several times:

VMWare Fusion 3.0 vs. Parallels Desktop 5.0

Comparison of VMware Fusion and Parallels Desktop - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[jshulman10]

parallel seems to work better plus it has some awesome features like mixing to operating system

 

[vansmith]

Have you thought about giving VirtualBox a try? It's free and unless you really need some of the fancy features in the other products, it may very well do the job for you.

 

[tadd5181]

What are the "fancy features" in Fusion or Parallels that are missing in VirtualBox?

 

[IvanLasston]

VirtualBox is pure virtualization of the operating system. This means you make a virtual hard disk and run a virtual machine inside your OSX operating system. Parallels and VMWare can work this way as well. On top of being able to run a Virtual Machine Parallels and VMWare can point to a real partition - read bootcamp partition - and run a virtual machine of that partition. On top of that VMWare and Parallels have modes that make windows directly integrate into Mac OSX.

Here is a pretty good head to head of parallels 5 vs vmware 3
Head-to-Head: Parallels Desktop for Mac vs. VMware Fusion

Here is a pretty bad head to head of virtualbox vs parallels vs vmware
VBox_vs_Others - VirtualBox
For example parallels 5 can import vmware images, supports 64 bit hosts, and supports openGL flip3d and the Aero interface with nary a slowdown.
So I have a feeling this was comparing Virtualbox to Parallels 4 - but it gives you an idea of what people look for in virtualization software.

Long story short - if you don't run bootcamp and never need to run a guest operating system with full resources Virtualbox is fine. If you do run bootcamp and you want to access that partition through a virtual machine as well as be able to boot into it - then look at Parallels/VMware. I actually switched to Parallels (and bought it in the Mac Update Promo) and found it to be much faster than VMWare 3.0.1 - I've been using Parallels for the last year instead of VMWare. I had started with VMWare because it is what my company supported - but I was able to import the VMWare images with no problem.

 

[tadd5181]

one more question: I already have put Windows 7 into my mac system and, so far, have used boot camp. If I switch to using Parallels, will my already-loaded Windows 7 work with it without reloading Windows 7 yet again?

 

[chscag]

Yes, as Ivan pointed out you can use your Boot Camp partition with Windows 7 as a VM. Parallels will import it without a problem.

However, as soon as Windows 7 is booted in the VM it will ask to be activated again since it "sees" different hardware and thinks it's a new install. But that is likewise easy and should activate again over the net. If it doesn't, a call to MS is all that's needed for activation.

Regards.

 

[schweb]

FWIW I actually switched from Parallels to Fusion and prefer Fusion.

 

[DonnaMarilyn]

Hi there. This thread touches on a problem I'm having.

In May I switched from a PC to an iMac, mainly for graphics and music purposes.

I now want to transfer Band-in-a-Box (BIAB, which I'd bought in October for the PC) to my iMac, and I installed Parallels5. However, my WinXP installation disc (SP3) just won't come to the party, despite several attempts to upload the programme so that it would link up with Parallels.

In the meantime, I've learned that the WinXP disc that was included with my Dell PC is never likely to work, as it was probably set up only to work on other Dell machines.

Question: Is there some way to set up Parallels5 (or any other WinXP>Mac transfer programme without needing to install an XP installation disc? Or could I obtain something from the internet?

For $159, I could cross-grade to BIAB for Mac, but several of the functions don't work on a Mac. (I'm thinking of getting the Parallels5 Desktop for Mac edition, but would need to get it from the US, where it's only $99. Here in the Netherlands, it's €320 [roughly equivalent to $450])! What I don't know is whether I'd still need an original WinXP installation disc, or does Parallels5 come with it's own WinXP disc set-up? (I hope I'm making some kind of sense here. )

In the meantime, thought I'd just ask whether anyone could propose a solution. (I know there are other transfer programmes, e.g. VisualBox and VMWareFusion, but they require installation discs as well.)

I'd be grateful for any tips/advice andyone might have.

Thanks!

Donna

 

[IvanLasston]

Pretty much any disk that comes with a computer now is only a restore disk for that computer. You cannot use it to install windows on anything else - and it really doesn't install windows on the original computer - it restores the factory state of windows.

So unfortunately the only legal way to install windows on a Mac, be it through bootcamp, or a virtual machine, is to have a licensed copy. No virtual machine comes with a license for windows. So you don't need a virtual machine to install windows on a Mac. You can use bootcamp. But you need a windows disk and license to install into either a VM or bootcamp. Plus since windows xp - all legal installs need to authenticate back to Microsoft so even if you had a windows install disk for another computer - if it was activated and you tried to install in a new computer - it would stop you and say too much hardware has changed - please call Microsoft.

Hey schweb - I'm curious - did you switch from Parallels 5 to VMware 3.0.1? And if you did what is keeping you there? I found VMWare to be significantly slower than Parallels 5 so performance for me is why I switched to Parallels.

 

[DonnaMarilyn]

Thanks, Ivan, for that clear explanation. I'll see what I can find out from Microsoft.

Donna

 

[schweb]

Hey schweb - I'm curious - did you switch from Parallels 5 to VMware 3.0.1? And if you did what is keeping you there? I found VMWare to be significantly slower than Parallels 5 so performance for me is why I switched to Parallels.

I had used Parallels from version 2.0 to 5.0 so I spent a lot of time with them. It wasn't until Fusion 3.0 came out that I decided to give it a try.

I immediately found Fusion to be more stable and less buggy than Parallels overall. I also like the overall design of the UI better, etc.

As for speed, I'll agree Parallels was initially faster, but not to the point it really impacted what I was doing, but since the release of Fusion 3.1, they're pretty much equal.

But the big key for me is the support for Fusion is much more responsive to issues, etc. This is most likely simply because VMWare is a much larger company with fortune 500 clients so they have a much more robust and mature support organization.

Honestly, I think they're both decent, I just really prefer Fusion.

 

[IvanLasston]

Thanks schweb - I hadn't run Fusion since last year. I started it up and it asked if I wanted to upgrade. I liked fusion and had been using VMware for most of my professional career. I'm going to have to test it out again now that I installed 3.1

 

[mullOfKingSize]

Hi there. This thread touches on a problem I'm having.

In May I switched from a PC to an iMac, mainly for graphics and music purposes.

I now want to transfer Band-in-a-Box (BIAB, which I'd bought in October for the PC) to my iMac, and I installed Parallels5. However, my WinXP installation disc (SP3) just won't come to the party, despite several attempts to upload the programme so that it would link up with Parallels.

In the meantime, I've learned that the WinXP disc that was included with my Dell PC is never likely to work, as it was probably set up only to work on other Dell machines.

Question: Is there some way to set up Parallels5 (or any other WinXP>Mac transfer programme without needing to install an XP installation disc? Or could I obtain something from the internet?

For $159, I could cross-grade to BIAB for Mac, but several of the functions don't work on a Mac. (I'm thinking of getting the Parallels5 Desktop for Mac edition, but would need to get it from the US, where it's only $99. Here in the Netherlands, it's €320 [roughly equivalent to $450])! What I don't know is whether I'd still need an original WinXP installation disc, or does Parallels5 come with it's own WinXP disc set-up? (I hope I'm making some kind of sense here. )

In the meantime, thought I'd just ask whether anyone could propose a solution. (I know there are other transfer programmes, e.g. VisualBox and VMWareFusion, but they require installation discs as well.)

I'd be grateful for any tips/advice andyone might have.

Thanks!

Donna

CrossOver (CodeWeavers delivers Compatibility for Mac and Linux. Your Windows Mac and Linux CrossOver solution - CodeWeavers) is like Parallels or VMWare with Windows built in. It costs US$40.

In their compatibility list, BIAB rates Silver.

A 30 day trial is available.

 

[vansmith]

CrossOver is nothing like virtualization with Windows built-in. VMWare/Parallels/VirtualBox virtualize a machine into which Windows can be installed. CrossOver emulates some of the functionality of Windows. Therefore, a virtual machine is a Windows machine while CrossOver just emulates it. If you need a piece of software to work, the chances of it working in a VM are much much greater.